Important Site has been updated and new banner contest

[LordSunhawk]

Two pieces of important news!

First of all, after much hard work by Tech Ops, we are finally running on the latest version of xenforo with updated add-ons and mods!

Things will look a bit different and, well... there is one minor issue. The site banner didn't transfer over because we totally forgot about that bit. We do have the old banner, and are working on getting it back up. In the meantime, any of you artistic types want to take a stab at designing a new one for the site?

 

[King Krávoka]

Whu- what the hell. Why is nothing orange any more? DId I type the wrong URL again? No?! This is it now?!? This is how everything has to appear now?!??
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

[TheRejectionist]

Two pieces of important news!

First of all, after much hard work by Tech Ops, we are finally running on the latest version of xenforo with updated add-ons and mods!

Things will look a bit different and, well... there is one minor issue. The site banner didn't transfer over because we totally forgot about that bit. We do have the old banner, and are working on getting it back up. In the meantime, any of you artistic types want to take a stab at designing a new one for the site?

Looks weird and difficult to use.

When I thought about an update I didn't thought it would look this fancy. Did you choose the aesthetical part of the update or it was pre-installed/or whatever the term is I am just a rando living in Italy.

By the way I don't know if you realize but we unfortunatly have 3 pregnant emojis.

The rest is ok, though I will get used to it.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Definitely missing my orange style. I prefer every forum have a different color scheme and way too many use blue.

Is there a specific size we're looking for on the new banner? Any other constraints?

 

[Sergeant Foley]

Two pieces of important news!

First of all, after much hard work by Tech Ops, we are finally running on the latest version of xenforo with updated add-ons and mods!

Things will look a bit different and, well... there is one minor issue. The site banner didn't transfer over because we totally forgot about that bit. We do have the old banner, and are working on getting it back up. In the meantime, any of you artistic types want to take a stab at designing a new one for the site?

🤔

 

[Sergeant Foley]

@LordSunhawk
What happened to my notification bell? I had 917 unread messages, now it's down to 148. What's happening?

 

[Sergeant Foley]

Whu- what the hell. Why is nothing orange any more? DId I type the wrong URL again? No?! This is it now?!? This is how everything has to appear now?!??
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Wondering the same thing SMH

 

[Captain X]

Thanks. I hate it. 😛

ETA: Here's some art a quick image search found if you would want to ask the artist.

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rRr0RJ

https://geekynerfherder.blogspot.com/2021/02/coolart-dune-prints-by-matt-griffin-bottleneck-gallery-.html

 

[49ersfootball]

Two pieces of important news!

First of all, after much hard work by Tech Ops, we are finally running on the latest version of xenforo with updated add-ons and mods!

Things will look a bit different and, well... there is one minor issue. The site banner didn't transfer over because we totally forgot about that bit. We do have the old banner, and are working on getting it back up. In the meantime, any of you artistic types want to take a stab at designing a new one for the site?

Good Morning @LordSunhawk. I had 2,440+ messages in the notification bell from Tuesday morning. Why is it dropped to 151 ?

Can you please explain when will we get all of the unread notifications back to where we left off ?

 

[LordSunhawk]

If your mass of unread notifications included reactions, then those got aggregated, plus you now only get 1 notification per thread at a time for new posts.

Otherwise, if you aren't reading the notifications anyways, I fail to see an issue.

 

[49ersfootball]

If your mass of unread notifications included reactions, then those got aggregated, plus you now only get 1 notification per thread at a time for new posts.

Otherwise, if you aren't reading the notifications anyways, I fail to see an issue.

I liked my 2,440+ unread notifications on my notification bell. 😞

 

[Buba]

I don't see much difference, TBH ...
But I am aware that my awareness levels vary - and usually are not that high

 

[TheRejectionist]

@LordSunhawk by the way I am bit curious but was the update mandatory, you thought it was necessary or something else entirely?

 

[49ersfootball]

I don't see much difference, TBH ...
But I am aware that my awareness levels vary - and usually are not that high

This update was basically NOT necessary. I'm just being honest about it.

 

[LordSunhawk]

@LordSunhawk by the way I am bit curious but was the update mandatory, you thought it was necessary or something else entirely?

It was necessary, as many of the plug-ins and updates that people wanted (expanded media links, for example, and being able to follow OP posts) required the latest version of Xenforo to function, plus we were starting to get an accumulating number of backend errors related to just how badly out of date we were.

 

[49ersfootball]

It was necessary, as many of the plug-ins and updates that people wanted (expanded media links, for example, and being able to follow OP posts) required the latest version of Xenforo to function, plus we were starting to get an accumulating number of backend errors related to just how badly out of date we were.

Badly out of date ?

 

[Free-Stater 101]

@LordSunhawk by the way I am bit curious but was the update mandatory, you thought it was necessary or something else entirely?

Badly out of date ?

The site had an old owner before both of you joined, she founded this place in 2019 before selling it due to personal reasons in early 2021 to make a long story short she never updated anything involved with the forum's infrastructure something @LordSunhawk has been struggling to correct due to the technical issues involved by not doing so.

So, in short, we have been running on the same version of Xenforo for four years which not only makes performing basic maintenance more difficult, but also possess a security risk. It made making minor updates for user convenience like adding embedding links for other sites impossible as well as using plugins.

Additionally keeping to the same version of Xenforo is a lot like refusing to update from Windows 7. Sure, you can argue that version is better from a certain standpoint but eventually the software's limitations will be reached and once it is its hell on earth to update from something so old, we already were having big issues with the site and our last attempted updated bought the site down it was such a hell.

So yes, the site being updated was truly mandatory and necessary, it could in no way wait any longer without placing us at further risk of not being able to do so later and eventually it would need to be done or we would risk becoming incompatible to our users and for any site that is a death sentence.

On the plus side now that we are updated to present hardware any future updates as long as regularly done shouldn't be as much of a hinderance as this one was.

 

[Captain X]

This update was basically NOT necessary. I'm just being honest about it.

It is always necessary, believe it or not. I found out the hard way, because I never updated my forum either, but in the meantime my host was updating their server, and eventually it hit a point where my forum was no longer supported by their software, and will simply appear as a blank white page.

 

[posh-goofiness]

Great. Now that we're up to date, containerize everything. If its not done now, it will never be.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Great. Now that we're up to date, containerize everything. If its not done now, it will never be.

Containerization is great, but would require the Xenforo developers to do it, since it's an application layer setup.

Now that we are fully updated, Tech Ops will be keeping us in that state.